Climate legislation continues to be a major focus for Sacramento, with more than 60 bills pending
related to climate change. Several proposed in 2007 (the first year of the current two-year session)
remain under consideration, including:
- AB 224 - Wolk - Climate Change and Water Resource Protection Act. Would require state water
management plans to account for possible climate change impacts.
- AB 704 - Eng - Local Government: Land Use: Resident Advisory. Would require local governments to form
environmental advisory commissions for policymakers involved with land management.
- AB 1066 - Laird - Coastal Resources: Local Coastal Programs. Would require state and local governments
to develop regional strategies for coastal communities to accommodate a rise in sea level.
- AB 1489 - Huffman - Resource Bond Funds: Stormwater Management. Sets guidelines for use of bond funds from the Safe
Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of
2006.
- SB 27 - Simitian - Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Clean Drinking Water, Water Supply
Security, and Environmental Improvement Act. Would place $4 billion bond act on November 2008
ballot, to raise money for water quality, environmental enhancement, and water supply reliability
program.
Two other bills noted in the Capitol Happenings climate related legislation roundup last
May, SB 17 (Flores): Flood Protection Act, and SB 5 (Machado): Flood Management, were chaptered last
fall.
AB 109 (Nunez), which (as introduced in 2007) focused on reports following up on the
California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, has been amended to focus on modifying the health
and safety code with regards to air pollution. AB 109 now requires the Energy Commission to
implement the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, and specifies that
funding is to be spent on programs other than renewable diesel or biodiesel related programs. It
also requires the state board to develop and adopt guidelines to implement the Air Quality
Improvement Program. Funding is to be awarded through a competitive process and identification of
relevant federal funding sources to supplement research is encouraged. In an effort to ensure that
funding is spent on truly alternative and novel fuel technology research, the program is prohibited
from funding projects designed primarily to ensure compliance with state or federal statutes.
The
wide range of climate related policies under consideration has led to recognition that the state
could benefit from greater coordination of these efforts. Correspondingly a new bill has been
proposed, SB 1760 (Perata), that would give a legislative mandate to the Climate Action Team (CAT),
a group of representatives from specified state agencies coordinated under the California
Environmental Protection Agency at the request of Governor Schwarzenegger. CAT released its first
report in March 2006 and is scheduled to release its next report shortly. SB 1760 gives CAT more of
a guiding role in coordinating state climate related policies and directs the group, by 2010, to
prepare a research, development, and demonstration plan to establish priorities and identify key
expenditure categories for research, development, demonstration, and deployment funds to be expended
by the state agencies represented on the CAT for the following fiscal year. The bill would require
research, development, and demonstration funds that are administered by the Department of
Transportation and are allocated for clean technology, environmental protection, and public interest
energy research to be expended in a manner consistent with the plan.
